


Frozen hearts of times lost

by horrorriz



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of past child abuse, Trust Issues, batman is a thing, if Ed would had remained frozen 20 years, slowburn, the rest of the rogues gallery are established
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-07 03:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18612583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horrorriz/pseuds/horrorriz
Summary: Oswald had not planned to let him go, not until he was dead and gone. Not having to bear with getting hurt ever again.When one day, the iceberg lounge is hit by a disastrous power outage overnight. Edward is let out of his frozen prison and Oswald is left to deal with the consequences, and the guilt.The world Ed is released into is not like he left it, a city unknown and people changed. When the dynamics are completely turned, friends and alliances gone, he is truly alone. The only constant that remains, is the man he had sworn as his one true enemy.





	Frozen hearts of times lost

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a bit of a mixture between comic and Gotham verse, focusing mostly on canon Gotham with my own take on a few things. I hope it will be clear enough.
> 
> Please enjoy!!

_No, no, no. NO! This can’t be happening. He can’t be gone. Not now, not like this, not after all this time.  
_ Oswald desperately grabbed onto the only thing left of his frozen friend, the bowler, whose silhouette he had memorized every detail of within those thick walls of ice. Years of long lonely nights, shared with the company of a drink and a listener compelled to forever offer sympathy, without actually hearing. Without any personal power of choice —long taken, snatched just like the life he never got to live. The fate Penguin had stolen and imprisoned in a snowglobe of his hand, to watch the specks of snow dangle down of what could never be. Just so he could dream, and pretend he did them a favor. For the only way they could ever live, would be without the company of the other.   
Despite that, Oswald had been too selfish. He craved the company of him even now, with the still image akin to a clock stopped, yet glistening in youth. While the crime lord himself looked back with eyes that had seen many battles lost, but nothing like what still waited.  
  
Gone, just like that… Now all that remained was a notion of fear, the knowledge what was to come. The disputes left too long, aged by lost time into distant nightmare by now.  
  
Edward wouldn’t have understood, Oswald tried telling himself —the guilt of all the times he had been so close of thawing him out himself feeling all too real. To wrap his arms around his chilly frame, offer the warmth of his heart’s desires, finally purified of any ill intentions. Only it wasn’t the truth, for he remained selfish as ever.  
  
So, Oswald let him be, left his best friend and only love in his frozen prison until the end of his time. When he had added to his will to finally have him released, only when the Penguin wasn’t alive to be hurt anymore.  
The level of his selfishness saw no end, he would do anything to save himself of the mistake of his youthful self who had been much too deep in enraged passion to make solid decisions.  
  
There was only one outcome for the two of them —for the world wasn’t made to handle either their mutual love, nor hatred… Was the inevitable death of emotions too strong for their fragile earthly bodies to contain.  
Their souls forever bound to the other through their mutual connection, a pair of opposing forces attracting the other with such intensity it proved too great to allow them a life of constant battles. The result would have been devastating.  
  
Freezing Ed, keeping him in that condition. It was the only way things could be, Oswald had reasoned.  
  
Now… With the Riddler out of his chilly cage, the display of Oswald’s unrequited affection taken flight into a world now strange and unknown to him. He was worried sick, his heart sunk low, stained with poison of fear and rejection to come.  
The Penguin needed to find his lost treasure before anyone else had the chance to sink their dirty, petty claws into such an untouched, innocent soul, a stark contrast to what had become of Gotham during the time he had been in his deep, cold doze.  
  
With no time to lose, Oswald picked up his cell phone and dialled a contact he had hoped to never need to resort to.  
  
“I need a favor,” Oswald asked with a to-the-point tone.  
  
“How did you get a hold of this number!?” a female voice shouted back.  
  
“Your father gave it to me, entrusting me I would only use it with good intentions in mind.”  
  
“I’m not sure you are capable of such thoughts, Penguin.”  
  
“Please, call me Oswald. Your father and I were close once, after all. Perhaps in another life you’d called me uncle…”  
  
“Get to the point, _Oswald_ ,” Barbara allowed with caution.    
  
“Edward Nygma.”  
  
“What, you found a cure for his supposed ‘rare brain disease’?”  
  
“He’s gone.”  
  
“Well that’s… I’m sorry.” She sounded sad, even with the circumstances it wasn’t something that could have been easy for Penguin.  
  
“No… No! He’s alive, at least I hope so. He’s thawed out, he escaped. I… I’m… I worry for him. Gotham isn’t like he left it, all those years ago. I fear for what might happen to him, that is to say if he is unaffected after having been frozen all that time…” By now, Oswald started to sound frantic. Urgent to have her understand and the matter settled enough for her to pull her many strings. He needed to find Ed, and he needed to find him fast. Oracle was his best bet if he were to have any chance of survival.  
  
“I see. Fine, I’ll see what I can do, but only because dad would yell at me later if you called him after. Which I hope won’t be necessary if I agree to your request first hand?”  
  
“I’ll agree to those terms, Miss Gordon.”  
  
“It’s Oracle to you.”  
  
With that, she hung up on Oswald. Who was left hoping, begging, for Ed to be alright. That whoever would find him first, would take him back to him, take him home.

  
  


***

  
  


“Dad?”  
Barbara rotated her chair to locate who had entered her apartment, already knowing the answer from the heavy steps, a physical attribute marred by many years of hard decisions, a weight prominent in how he carried himself. A constant aura of defeat in spite of attempts to keep a long lost city in order  
  
“Word’s out you’re looking for Nygma. Is that true?”  
  
“It is, Penguin… Oswald, called me himself.”  
Barbara moved closer to her father in order to address him properly.  
  
“Oh, so you’re on a first name basis now?” Gordon raised an eyebrow.  
  
“He insisted we weren’t strangers because of our mutual connection to you.” She bit her lip.  
  
“Is that so…” Jim thoughtfully muttered.  
  
“So?”  
  
“You’re helping him?” he asked.  
  
“Yes, I mean. Of course… This is… It seemed sincere. He sounded... Scared.”  
  
The commissioner didn’t reply, just frowned deeply.  
  
“You don’t seem surprised?”  
  
“Those two… It’s not exactly common knowledge but. Oswald he… Had an interest in Ed.” Jim looked away, clearly uncomfortable with the topic.  
  
“Surely you don’t mean he...?”  
  
“Oswald was in love with Nygma.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
Barbara cleared her throat as means to put an end to the awkward, exposed revelation.  
  
“I’ve notified Bruce and Tim.”  
  
“You’re gonna want to let Lucius know as well.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Ed had… an interest in Mr. Fox.”  
  
“Oh god was he in love with him? Was this why Penguin and he had a falling out?”  
  
“...No!” The commissioner’s face flushed red with the thought, surprised it was so easy to imagine it as well. He shook the mental imagine away and continued. “I mean, he attempted to make Lucius his nemesis, back then for a while. I’m afraid he will seek him out, looking for any scraps of his old life.”  
  
“I understand. Will you help? I know you used to be friends, once upon a time.”  
  
“That was a very long time ago.”  
  
“For Nygma it will feel like a year at most.”  
  
Once again, Gordon remained quiet. A habit he had taken up to keep his big mouth shut when he knew someone was right.  
  
“Well?” Barbara tried, resting her chin into her palm, elbow supported on her thigh.  
  
“Fine. Why is it you have such power over me? I am the commissioner here, not you!”  
  
“Oh, but I have a far superior role over you.”  
  
“Which is?”  
  
“I’m your daughter,” she smiled, “and fathers like to treat them like princesses, no matter how old they get.”  
  
“I don’t know how you got so smart.”  
  
“I can think of a few reasons.” She winked.  
  
“Letting the Gordon gene die out with me and adopting you was probably the wisest decision of my life. Who knows what careless decisions would have been made of that poor soul otherwise…”  
  
“Oh so now you approve of my previous life as a vigilante?”  
  
“You’re safe now,” he deadpanned.  
  
“I’m miserable,” she countered.  
  
“Are you really? Didn’t you say a few months back you’re helping more people now behind a screen, than when you were flying across rooftops?”  
  
“That’s the problem. It’s… Frustrating. I suppose I miss it? The thrill.”  
  
“That thrill would have gotten you killed, almost did.”  
  
“It wasn’t being Batgirl that got me into this chair.” Barbara’s expression suddenly turned dark, before turning away from her father to roll back to her computer setup.  
  
“Babs, I…”  
  
“Find Nygma, you owe him that much.”  
  
“Fine.”  
  
With that, Jim turned to leave. Stopping to give one last glance at the wheelchair bound structure of his daughter. She was right, of course, as always. It wasn’t the life of Batgirl that had gotten her hurt, it wasn’t even Gotham. It was him, and him alone.

  
  


***

  
  


“What do you mean lost track? I gave you ONE simple task and this is how you handle it? You should know better than to let down the PENGUIN of all people,” Oswald was screaming into his phone, stressed and aggravated by the sheer incompetence of his minions. Time was ticking and the only trail of Ed had now turned cold.  
  
“Boss?” A smaller, built man dressed in a rolled up dress shirt, waistcoat, and topped off with a bowler hat peeked through the door frame to the Penguin’s office at the Iceberg lounge.  
  
“Not now, I’m busy declaring a death sentence to an imbecile who clearly doesn’t know his place.” The Penguin nonchalantly waved the henchman away, who took another step into the room.  
  
“There has been a sighting.”  
  
Oswald instantly dropped the phone from his ear, not even caring to turn off the call.  
“Where?” he asked already standing and on his way to receive his coat.  
  
“By the docks, sir.”  
  
“The docks?”  
  
“West end pier, Penguin sir.”  
  
“That’s…” he trailed off. The pier where Edward had shot Oswald, where he had him frozen. “My driver?” Oswald continued, grabbing his umbrella as a cane and limping out over the club floor while his minion followed.  
  
“Already waiting outside sir.”

  
  


***

  
  


This wasn’t right, nothing was like it should be. Missing, it was all… Missing. What was he missing?   
Ed slammed his fist into his head, in an attempt to get it working. Why couldn’t he think?  
He could remember, Oswald… His smug face… _“As a constant reminder of the one time I let love weaken me, and to never make that mistake again.”_ The Penguin’s voice echoed through Ed’s shattered mind.  
  
Love… Oswald… ...Cold. Why was everything so cold?  
  
Suddenly he became aware of his surroundings, finding himself in an old warehouse. Near the docks by the looks of all the shipping containers and various boat parts. The location didn’t appear particularly chilly, but he was _freezing._ Shivering and cold to the bone.  
Ed didn’t have any memory of why and how he had gotten there, or most of all, why?  
  
He needed some air to clear his head, despite the size of the warehouse, the place was making him claustrophobic. A prisoner of his own mind, even.  
  
The chilly air hit him like a brick wall, sending icy shivers down his already lowered body heat. Yet it felt refreshing, and shred of clarity.  
He kept walking and soon found himself at the edge of a pier, looking out over a city he did not recognize. Some buildings were of familiar shapes, but everything looked… Different, bigger and more industrial, almost futuristic. Gotham surely had taken a swing upwards during his brief absence, he thought.  
Upon closer inspection of his surroundings, the very pier he was standing on caught his eye. Surely this wasn’t…?   
A strike of lightning pierced through his mind, fragmented flashes of memories coursing through.   
  
Oswald, begging.  
Blood mixing with water.  
A can of pills emptied into the same black water.  
Oswald again, wearing the face of dejection.  
Then cold, just cold.  
  
Buzzing, like an electric charge through his body spawned a new line of imagines.  
Seeing himself jostled awake in a puddle of freezing water, shuddering while scrambling to his feet, only to fall back down again, muscles too weak to use, blood flow still slowed by the cold.  
Finally upright, moving forward. Out on the street, the alarm going off a stolen car. Eyes on the horizon of the waters. The pier, Oswald… Needing answers as desperately as he needed air.  
The painful feeling of knives through his head as he attempted to recollect the latest event.  
He fell back to the hard pavement of the pier, scraping his knees, fabric tearing and skin bleeding. Holding his arms before him for support, trying to breathe, trying to think.  
  
As he thought himself able to even his heartbeat again, he could hear footsteps behind him.  
  
“Ed?”  
  
A voice called for him, soft, seeking, familiar?  
  
“Ed, are you alright?”  
  
Ed stood up, turning so fast he thought he might fall over again. His eyes instantly locked with a pair of well-known pale eyes, glistening with worry under his deep frown.  
And just like that all pain changed to a single notion of anger, seething under his skin, boiling him alive.   
  
“Do not talk to me Oswald,” he warned.  
  
“You… Left. I got worried,” Oswald breathed. Pulse elevated, it felt like he was underwater, thundering through his veins.  
  
For 20 years he had laid his eyes on that thin green frame, and for 20 years he had never moved, never replied. No matter how many tears he had shed, how nasty his words of drunken anger had been.  
It felt like his heart was about to leave his chest, fall down onto the ground and lay before Ed, for him to pick up the broken pieces. To acknowledge and accept the offering, for he was the only man Oswald had ever loved. Everything came flowing back to him as if it had been yesterday, the words Ed said rang loudly, before he shot him. _I don’t love you.  
_ Ears pierced with the sound of a gunshot, sharp pain through his abdomen but nowhere near as agonising as the words of rejection that cut through his still bleeding heart.  
Heart. Only for him. _I did it because I love you.  
_ Did he? Had he frozen him out of love too? Or out of anger and selfishness? Had he perhaps learnt nothing about Edward’s teachings, that love meant sacrifice?   
  
“I escaped from the prison _you_ put me in,” Ed followed, Oswald’s presence bringing some of the shattered pieces together.  
  
“I… Had to.” How could he say that? So many times he had thought it through, reasoned with his decision it was equally right as well as the ultimate betrayal. Robbing him of his life, letting everything and everyone move on without him so when he would come back, he would truly be alone. That had been Penguin’s original plan. A cruel punishment. One not even the Riddler deserved. So why had he done it?  
  
Because he knew he couldn’t have him.  
Because he knew that Ed would kill him.  
Because he knew that when that time came, he would welcome death with open arms.  
  
Edward couldn’t bear to listen to another well-crafted lie, as they were endless when it came from Penguin, all ejected in a well-polished act. It was repulsing to say the least.  
How could he act so calm and collected? With a voice providing a soothing drizzle of what sounded like pity and regret rather than anger? It did nothing than further spur Ed on, his tangly still chilly limbs vibrating with the fury building inside him, rapidly replacing his frozen heart with a burning desire to once again kill the man before him. The feeling seemingly swallowed him whole, flames caressing his soul like an old friend. A pleasant intensity to take his mind off how there was still this deep cold that no fire could warm. Something missing —a forgotten dream of times lost, engulfed into the flames cloaking his true emotions, the very real pain he pretended was just a lie. Another lie much like everything Oswald had ever said. Betrayal being the fuel to the blaze. An inferno burning brighter than anything else.  
  
No, he couldn’t stay here longer and listen to Oswald’s latest tricks. Attempting to gain his sympathy through pity and bared emotions, _love._ Disgusting.  
  
Ed left the Penguin with a gaped mouth, as he gave a repulsed frown before turning to run. He took a route that would assuredly keep his distance from the potential of firearms even though he knew Oswald wouldn’t even try. If he wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t pass up the chance to do it slowly and intimately. A gunshot from long range wouldn’t provide such satisfaction.  
  
Oswald moved to follow Ed’s speedy pace as he watched his driver be dragged out of the car, and shot with his own gun he had attempted to draw against Ed. Idiot, Oswald thought. He knew better than to kill Ed of all people, was he not here to take him home rather than have him killed? If Edward had not already done the job for him, that man would not have lasted much long after.  
  
He sighed, watching the driver’s door close and the car take off, rapidly disappearing in the distance.  
  
Back to square one.

  
  


***

  
  


Knuckles turned white with the force Ed’s fingers were clinging to the wheel, as if he might rip it out of its place in any second.  
It didn’t make sense, why was Oswald acting so odd? Why didn’t he press a knife to his throat and expose the searing fire in his eyes Ed knew so well? ...Or thought he did.  
  
The thoughts were swimming in an endless dark ocean while buildings flashed around him as he drove deeper into the city. Something didn’t feel quite right still. Everything felt new, different, but old and the same familiarity. Like visiting your childhood home to realize everything was so much smaller than you remembered, only in this instance everything seemed to have gotten bigger. Buildings towering above him he couldn’t quite remember, some parts cleaner than before, others looking like they had years of the city’s filth built up upon their walls.  
  
He drove aimlessly through the cityscapes, trying to find reason within its streets. It became quickly clear that it did nothing than confuse him further and before he knew it, he found himself with the car illegally parked in front of the GCPD, which he was relieved looked roughly the same.  
  
With his eyes set on the captain’s office, he stormed in, only to have a complete stranger look up at him.  
Attempting to not appear as deranged as he felt, he cleared his throat.  
  
“I’m looking for Detective Gordon.”  
  
The stranger laughed, a distasteful, mocking tone, much like bullies featured in old memories he rather not think back on.  
“ _Commissioner_ Gordon would scowl upon hearing that.”  
  
“Commissioner?” Ed asked bewildered.  
  
“Yes, where have you been living, under a rock?”  
  
“Not far from…” Ed mumbled to himself.  
  
“What was that?”  
  
“Nothing. I was… Just leaving. Thank you for your assistance Captain…?”  
  
“Bock. Have a nice day, good luck with the commissioner.” He winked at Nygma who raised his eyebrows in his building confusion.  
  
Ed turned to head towards the sister building of the station, where the commissioner usually resided.   
  
“Oh… Uh, excuse me sir?” the man called after him.  
  
Ed abruptly turned on his heel, in annoyance. “What?”  
  
“Surely you’re aware the commissioner’s office is in one of the newer conversions upstairs?”  
  
“...Of course.” Ed replied simply and spun around to climb up the familiar stone stairs. Was there anything that had remained the same?  
  
The new glass encased office looked airy and quite extra to fit in the old station, yet somehow it showed signs of wear, glass repaired and window strips hanging. On the other hand this was Gotham, they probably had a shooting twice a week. Who’s clever idea was it to install a glass office in this crime filled city?  
  
He considered knocking, but at the sight of a familiar frame hunched over the big desk, he chose the less polite path, pushing the luckily unlocked door open.  
  
“Jim Gordon.” Ed plastered his trademark shark grin over his face as the commissioner looked up.  
  
“Someone’s been climbing the career ladder with big boy steps,” he proclaimed as he took a step closer.   
  
Gordon looked at him like he had seen a ghost, eyes wide and clumsily fumbling to stand, to get a closer look.  
  
“Ed?” he tried. “Is… That really you?”  
  
“Yes of course Jimbo, who else?” Ed replied with a laugh, attempting to hide the uneasy feeling he felt creeping through anyway.  
  
Jim appeared… Different. And it was not just the moustache he had decided to sport, but the salt and pepper details to his hair and the wrinkles at his eyes and this overall look of years of wear. Tired, broken by a constant fight against the city’s never ending storm of crime.  
  
How long had he been frozen?  
  
“Ed…” Jim began again and he noticed Nygma growing impatient, most likely frustrated no one had him what was going on. It felt weird to speak a name he had not even heard in so long, like it was in another life. Strangely enough a simpler, happier one. Where disaster, long lingering pain, and suffering had evolved into something he was growing increasingly too old to deal with, if he ever could.  
  
Barbara had told him the news from Penguin, but that didn’t help lessen the shock. Ed Nygma standing before him, looking exactly the same as all those years ago. Did he even know? Was he aware of the circumstances? Nygma had always been bright, but who knew what two decades on ice could do to your brain...  
  
“It’s been 21 years.”  
  
“Since what?” Ed kept his usual high and mighty tone, but the low, sunken in gaze and furrowed brows from Jim that only indicated pity was starting to worry him.  
  
“Since Penguin froze you.”  
  
The fragile pieces Edward had attempted to hold on shattered, fell to the floor like broken glass, in too many pieces, there’d be no use in ever attempting to pick them up. His vision darkened and his balance swayed, he had to grab hold of the back of the chair in front of Jim’s desk, to keep his long limbs upright.  
  
 _No…_ _That couldn’t be!_ A few months, a year at most, but decades?   
  
Ed thought back to when he had faced Oswald at the docks, how he had stared back at him with a mix of fear, a deep melancholy… _Hurt._ Like Ed had stabbed him through the heart with the mere sight of himself.  
  
21 years… He could admit there was something off about Oswald. Much like Jim his eyes seemed to have permanent dark circles, not to mention he had certainly... Put on a little bit of weight, but who was Ed to judge? There was also that outrageous monocle. He internally scoffed, Oswald had always been one for a clearly outdated look.  
  
The commissioner could see the inner dwellings going back and forth like a one man play on Edward’s face, he wondered what he had thought was going on. Why was he unfrozen in the first place? He looked… Exactly the same, like time haven’t moved a day, and he supposed that was it. Frozen in time, the world moved on without him. So many things were different now, so many people were. Would he be able to recognize anything, could he make it in the truly wretched hell of a city Gotham had become?  
  
“Focus, Ed. What is the last you remember?”  
  
“Oswald…” Ed breathed, trying to focus back on the real world, as it seemed to spin all around him. What was real? This all seemed like one of the worst nightmares he had ever encountered. Even worse than…. He shrugged the recollection of flashes from when he had been deep in a frozen doze.  
  
“He...“ he trailed off, shaking off last image of the disappointed eyes before everything stopped, enclosed by his chilly prison.  
“I saw him,” His eyes glued into the floor, too scared to look up at the man he barely recognized anymore. Arms clenched around himself, trying to stop the persistent shivers running through him. “Earlier,” he added.  
“Then I ran. I could not bear to hear another second of his pathological lying self and attempts at justifications.”  
  
“And you came here?” Jim asked for clarification.  
  
“I… Didn’t know where else to go.” Ed swallowed a nervous chuckle as he could hear the truth in his own words. He didn’t. No friends, no allies. No ace left in his sleeve.  
To hear that everyone had moved on without him, like he had never even existed? Maybe he didn’t belong in this world anymore.  
  
Before Jim had a chance to answer, a female detective came bursting through the doors.  
  
“Sorry to interrupt Mr. Gordon, but there has been an incident.”  
  
“What kind?”  
  
“Witnesses say to have seen a literal catfight between Catwoman and Magpie inside Gotham Museum of Antiquities —allegedly interrupted an ongoing tour to snatch a jewel right in front of the guide and complete chaos erupted. Batman have been alerted and is supposedly on his way...”  
  
The commissioner cursed as he went to retrieve his coat.  
  
“Since when is Magpie out of Blackgate? As for those other two, it’s to be expected they won’t play nice, apparently my job here is to be a preschool teacher rather than commissioner.”  
  
“I’m sorry Ed, I have to run.” Jim gave him one last sympathetic glance before rushing out.  
  
Ed was left feeling dumbfounded, something that was starting to feel like a new habit with present circumstances.  
  
Curious, and without better judgement on what to do, he decided to follow the commissioner. He wanted to know what new players had taken the city while he was gone.  
  
So once Jim was out of eavesdrop but not sight, Edward took his chance to follow him —clearly imagining himself to be quite sneaky, but ice still possibly clouding his better judgement.  
  
The commissioner was certain Ed was going to trail him even before he made the decision, maybe it was for the best? To let him see the new reality of what the city had become with his own eyes.

 

***

 

Getting into the museum was child's play with the tumult of the situation shattering the people in panic. The fascinating part of it was how while half of the civilians fled for their lives, the other half stayed to witness the fight going on like it was regular weekday sports game —cheering on for their respective teams from a safe distance, some even dressed in obvious merch of the masked villains and heroes.  
  
What have Gotham come to?  
  
Ed sneaked in further, following the opposite direction of the screaming population and nearer than any of the crowd dared to.  
  
He closed in on the hall which at least 20 years back had held the exhibit of precious gems —which was most likely still the case, given the advertisements he had seen leading the way in there, promoting the temporary exhibition of the “Sancy Diamond”, borrowed from the Louvre for a limited time only.  
Inside he could hear several clear voices in a more casual tone than expected, almost as they were friends.  
  
“I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,”  
  
A woman dressed in some kind of extravagant costume topped off with large feathers around her neck giggled as she tiptoed around a display before finally doing backflip up to sit on it.  
“or maybe it’s this one you should be worried about?” She pulled out another gem out of her sleeve, identical to the one inside the glass case she was seated on top.  
  
Carefully, Ed peaked through the door frame to witness the scene in front of him.  
  
A second woman sighed before kicking the case over, making the feathery one tumble over as the case fell and glass shattered across the marble floor. The gem inside hit the floor one…. Two… Three times, then —BOOM! A small explosion erupted from it, the fake glass pieces projectiling and mixing with the rest of the mess.  
  
Ed looked over his shoulder as one splinter flew right past him, only just missing him.  
  
Heels crushed the glass as the woman walked with featherlight yet firm steps, the reflection of the shatters shimmering back on her black skin tight suit made of what appeared to be some sort of latex material. The literal catsuit was topped off with a stylish sort of helmet with cat ears on top, goggles covering her eyes.  
  
“Don’t start Magpie, just hand the Sancy Diamond over.”  
  
Magpie stood up and brushed the glass off her suit, with one hand, still cradling the treasure in the other.  
  
“Her name is Lucy and we have a connection. You cannot take her from me and break our special bond!” Magpie caressed the gem like it was a pet, occasionally giving it loving kisses.  
  
“You still act like such a child sometimes.”  
  
“Well _you_ are not worthy of this precious treasure, do you even _know_ what she’s been through?”  
  
“All I know is just how much ‘she’ will sell on the black market.”  
The cat smirked, taking a few more long strides towards Magpie, stretching out her fingers and revealing what appeared to be something resembling claws sticking out of her gloves.  
  
“Passed from kings and self proclaimed men of fortune, far far away from her home. The last thing she need is to travel through filthy hands of thugs and criminals!” Magpie backed, clearly cautious.  
  
The cat threw her head back in laughter. “You say that as you’re not one of them!”  
  
“I am certainly not like the lot of you! The lost souls trapped in precious treasures get a forever home with me.”  
  
Suddenly a dark shadow flashed by, and Ed’s eyes went wide as they saw the bat tower before him for the first time. He had chuckled when the detective had mentioned a “batman” to Gordon, but it would appear the names of these characters were more literal than he had imagined.  
The caped crusader flashed his cloak, making his presence known to the two bickering women.  
  
“Am I interrupting something?”  
  
A loud slap echoed in the hall as the cat slapped a long whip by the feet of the bat, making him roll backwards to evade getting hit.  
  
“Catwoman, always so easily enraged. Didn’t know you had interest in historical pieces as the Sancy Diamond?”  
  
“Like I was _just_ telling Magpie here, all that I care about is the amount of cash it will earn me.”  
  
“I had rather hoped you’d gained a sense of morality since last time.”  
  
“Are you ever going to let go of your naive hope that any of us could reform?”  
  
“People can change.”  
  
Ed was starting to understand Catwoman’s reluctance to the self proclaimed hero, he was obviously so full of himself that he was delirious. People doesn’t change, they only reveal another layer of their real intentions.  
He clasped his fist so hard the nails digging into his palms started to draw blood.   
  
Oswald would never change, no matter how many years that had passed. All that he ever cared about was himself. Clearly he had been busy the last two decades to keep proving that.  
  
“You cannot change someone’s very nature. I will always be who I am, just like you will remain doomed with the calling of hunting us down for what you believe to be justice.”  
  
Whoever this little kitty cat was, she had deserved Edward’s respect. A woman of his own values.  
  
“Save the justice for the commissioner, was it up to him, you would all be in Blackgate right now. Speaking of,” he turned to Magpie. “what are you doing out here?”  
  
“I heard of the arrival my beautiful friend here, and I just couldn’t let up the opportunity to meet her!”  
  
Batman grabs something from his belt, throwing what appears to be some sort of bat shaped boomerang (how full of himself could this man possible be?) at Magpie.  
Just as she seemed to believe it had missed her, the batarang turns and lets out an aura of electricity not enough to stun her completely, but enough for Magpie to drop the gem.  
  
“That is my cue to leave.” She proclaims before doing a couple of obviously overly dramatic backflips for what Ed could think of no other reason than to simply show off, before shielding her face with her arms to leap out of one of the windows.  
  
Catwoman rolls over to snag the diamond, only briefly turning to the bat in order to her tounge out before following Magpie through of the window.  
  
Ed was almost certain he could see the big man dressed as a bat roll his eyes —a quite amusing sight, before he jumped out. Spreading his cape out like a pair of actual wings, he used them to effortlessly glide through the sky. Camouflaged by the darkness of the night that had fallen over the city.  
  
Too intrigued for his own self preservation, Ed sneaked back from where he had come, trying to follow the group outside.  
It did not take long to hear the yelling and the pitched sound of Catwoman’s whip against the pavement ringing between the city scrapes.  
  
Ed hid behind a dumpster in a nearby alley, ignoring the smell, it seemed like the safest spot for him right now.  
  
Magpie was nowhere to be seen, just the cat and the bat fighting like it was a well choreographed dance rather than a battle. Obviously knowing each other’s every move like they did this every night, and seeing the teasing, almost friendly tone they had expressed towards each other, perhaps they did.  
  
One thing had become clear through his observations, he was way over his head here and he needed to skedaddle, get out of this place before someone decided he looked at them wrong and smash his head in. A reconsideration of schematics, weighing his options was in order.  
  
A loud thud came from a body crashing into the dumpster he was hiding behind, having it buckle in and shift awfully close to him.  
  
...And not a minute too early.

**Author's Note:**

> It's me again, thanking you made it this far and asking you to consider leaving kudos and COMMENTS! I love hearing which parts you enjoyed most, or any thoughts about it really.   
> Thank you SO much for reader and I hope you'll subscribe and stay with me for the ride on this one!


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